Roland CSQ-600: in which the tech replaced the NiCad memory battery but installed the replacement battery in a ziploc bag ziptied to the mains wiring.
One interesting thing about restoring vintage synths is that almost every instrument that we work on has been worked on by another tech at least once before. And it seems that more often than not, those other techs were… not great. We see a lot of bad work, but my favorite examples also feature a very special element of absurdity. Here are some recent highlights:
Remember when we used to do a blog post and try to think of something to say about every Juno 106 we worked on? It’s a good thing we stopped because this is the 31st Juno 106 that I (Alison) have personally restored, not to mention the ones that Darian has done.
Roland Juno 106 slider gasket / dust protectors set
One thing we find in almost every 1980s Roland we work on is crumbly, dirty “dust shields” or “dust protectors” on the sliders (aka faders) of the panel board. These gaskets were cut from thin black EVA foam sheets and were meant to protect the sliders from dust. However, 35 years later, they have dried out and are falling apart, their fragments actually falling into the sliders and making their crackly and intermittent behavior much worse.
We had a week full of Junos (Junoes?), with three Juno 60s and four Juno 106es here all at once. These are the ones I did last week in between grinding away at various aspects of an insane Minimoog Model D restoration I’m working on and building a new power supply for a Rhodes Chroma.
Just finished fixing up another one. We now offer comprehensive Roland Juno 106 service packages to address the typical issues that these very popular synths have!
I bought this Juno from a guy named Mike in South Jersey, with a shaved head and a gold chain. I met up with him at his garage studio behind a roller rink, where the Juno had been used for over 25 years by musicians providing live accompaniment for the roller skaters. Now the music is performed by two “old cowboys” (his words) on two Hammond console organs. I also met Mike’s overweight English bulldog, who he introduced to me as his girlfriend. I think her name was Bethany. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#7) – this is New Jersey”
After I finished actually working on this Juno, I finally caved in to my perverse scientific curiosity and decided to see if I could use parts from a few half-failed Juno chips (ones from various Juno 106s I’ve worked on, that weren’t fully restored by the soaking/stripping process) to create some fully-functioning ones. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#6)”
I just finished restoring the electronics on this beautiful Juno I bought directly from Japan, with all its voice cards failing, to restore and sell. I was going to announce it as “for sale” here on the blog, but I had already posted it on our Reverb shop yesterday, and by the time I checked my email today it was already sold. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#5)”